Education in the Era of the Internet
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Education in the Era of the Internet Alberto Constante Faculty of Philosophy and Literature, National Autonomous University of Mexico., Mexico City, Mexico
The following work brings into question the viability of traditional education and those who teach it during the times of the Internet. It is not a minor matter the novelty is there and technology represents, without a doubt, an opportunity for personal growth, and even though there are concerns in relation to the education–technology pairing it is impossible to not approach it and attempt to elucidate the opportunities that it brings with it. It is clear that, for now, there is no unanimous answer to the question of what is the role of education and those whose responsibility is to impart it during the times of the Internet. Some time ago, Umberto Eco wrote “[. . .] that a student, to provoke a professor, asked him: “Excuse me, but in the age of the internet what are you good for?”” (La Nación 2007). The question, free of rhetoric, challenges the function of the teacher in an era in which all knowledge is poured into the Web holding, thus, the advantage of possessing almost all knowledge. It is an era in which social media, so-called artificial intelligence, algorithms, and a long etcetera, have created and shaped subjectivities, through many of
its forms, instances, values, wishes, and desires, as well as the abilities to visualize and speak, in other words, which can be seen and which can be said. With the Internet, social media, apps, artificial intelligence, algorithms, big data as well as some of its more efficient branches, machine learning is something that has become completely irrevocable. In this day and age the Internet discovers almost everything, delivers almost everything, and at the same time it bureaucratizes life; it also informs, sanctions, gives meaning, and direction, it is justified as the best option, it gives us values and ways of appreciation or rejection, and, above all, the belief that we are free. Nicholas Carr has said that “Despite everything that has been written about the web, there has been little thought given to how exactly it has reprogrammed us. The intellectual ethics of the web remain obscure” (Carr 2020). The question established by the student, why is there a need for a teacher in the age of the Internet takes on an unusual relevance calling for everyone to solve it, to define whether the figure of the teacher, during the age of apps, social media, artificial intelligence, speed, and closeness, makes sense. It calls to question whether teachers are up to the challenge and if they can keep up with the need of being completely integrated into the world that they now live in or if they have stepped aside from the carousel of technological evolution as an example of what a teacher should not be in the age of the Internet. It also makes us
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 M. A. Peters, R. Heraud (eds.), Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2262-4_213-1
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Education in the Era of the
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